Antioch High School holds second ‘peaceful’ protest after walkout turns violent

“It’s National School Walkout Day and I’m the only one at my school out here”, he can be heard in the video.

Hundreds of students at Scotland High School, emboldened by a growing protest movement over gun violence, stood up and walked out of school as part of a nationwide demonstration on Wednesday, one month after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Florida.

The walkouts drew support from companies such as media conglomerate Viacom, which paused programming on MTV, BET, Nickelodeon and its other networks for 17 minutes during the walkouts.

“The idea for walkups was to encourage each other and we wanted everyone to be proactive, but take the opportunity to strengthen our educational community” Aquan Grant, principal at Arbor Preparatory High School, told ABC News. Since then, surviving students have pressed for changes to gun laws, and demonstrations have sprung up on school campuses around the country.

The coordinated walkout was organized by Empower, the youth wing of the Women’s March, which brought thousands to Washington previous year. “We don’t want guns in our schools, full stop, regardless of who’s holding them”.

“The power of prayer can work miracles”, said Gina Wright.

“Gun control, mental health issues, bullying in schools, school safety in general”, Keene says. He was even thanked by a survivor of the Sandy Hook school shooting and praised by Wrinkle in Time director Ava Duvernay.

They said they hoped the Twitter feed would help gain a stronger, more unified student response through.

Woodbury High School junior Suhani Garg, said she opposed one widely-discussed proposal following the Florida shooting: arming teachers and school staff. As the victims’ names were read aloud, a photo of each victim was projected onto a large overhead screen.

Elsewhere in California, Righetti High School is reported to have received a threat shortly before its planned walkout at 10am.

But some vowed to walk out anyway.

Students at Granada Hills Charter High School in Los Angeles County laid down on the football field to spell out #Enough. “I ask you to stick with us and keep pushing us over the weeks to come”. “For me personally, this is something I believe in”.

“I’m that guy that spoke for 28 seconds and I would like to go to College for Acting or the Video game industry”.

While the Constitution protects the right for citizens to own a firearm, I would like to see lawmakers take a stand against gun violence in schools by banning assault weapons.

Meanwhile, free speech advocates geared up for a battle.

Students who didn’t want to participate didn’t have too – the student-body leaders made sure everyone was comfortable and felt they had the option to join in or decline to participate in the day’s events.